18.03.08 McCain highlights climate change as key transatlantic priority

Ahead of his visit to London, Republican presidential candidate John McCain urged Europe and the US to work together on climate change in a Financial Times editorial Tuesday.
The Arizona Senator singled out climate change as one of the top priorities on which Americans and Europeans should focus, behind terrorism and the trend towards autocracy in Russia.
His op-ed, entitled “America must be a good role model,” affirms his intention to for the US to engage in the international process to agree on a successor treaty to the Kyoto protocol.
“I have introduced legislation that would require a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, but that is just a start. We need a successor to Kyoto, a cap-and-trade system that delivers the necessary environmental impact in an economically responsible manner,” McCain wrote. (Source: Pointcarbon)

McCain also touted nuclear energy as a necessity to protect the environment and ensure energy security on both sides of the Atlantic.

“Right now safe, climate-friendly nuclear energy is a critical way both to improve the quality of our air and to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources,” he wrote.

McCain said the US and Europe are vulnerable due to their dependence on autocratic regimes for oil and gas exports. He said Europe needs to revamp its energy policy to address its dependence on Russia’s oil and gas monopolies for energy supplies.

McCain will arrive in London Wednesday after six days spent in the Middle East. He is travelling as a member of the Senate armed services committee, not as a presidential candidate, but he is expected to engage in discussions other than the war in Iraq.

He will meet with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris later this week.

McCain told the Times of London that he expects Brown to raise the issue of climate change, adding that renewed attention by the US to international negotiations on the subject would be a “mood-changer” for the US’ image in Europe.

Washington DC